This week, we look at an intensely dark and gritty new police procedural story that is intended to launch a new series. This week, we look at The Memory Man by Steven Savile.
This was one of the darkest, grittiest books I’ve read in quite a while. It opens with the brutal torture and murder of a Swedish politician, and it only gets darker from there. All across Europe, we see people getting mailed human body parts with a note demanding a meeting, going to the meeting… and disappearing. Clearly, a serial killer is on the loose. Eurocrimes Division agent Peter Ash, based in London, gets roped into the mystery when his friend, a fixer for the Catholic Church, asks for a favor in Paris. Eurocrimes Division agent Frankie Varga gets roped into it by a mysterious request from someone high in her local government in Sweden asking for her specifically to investigate the murder that opens the book. Along the way, all three will find they are on the exact same case.
Overall, this tale works extremely well in setting the book in the real world with all of its messiness – including brief commentary on the complexities of implementing the impending Brexit split. Each of the characters have an interesting backstory that could work as their own spinoff books, and the overall central mystery is one of those insanely dark tales that unfortunately is plausible enough – while fortunately *not* directly based on any actual known real world events – that the story desperately needs to be told. Sadly, too few authors have the courage to even mention it. Savile manages to string the reader along with just enough reveals and just enough further muddying of the waters to keep the reader engaged, and the short chapters help to compel a sense of both urgency and satisfaction of having completed another chapter.
This reader for one is very much looking forward to Book 2, as this promises to be an excellent new series indeed. Very highly recommended.
As always, the Goodreads/ Amazon review:
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